The game-winning goals Boston Bruins winger Michael Ryder has scored this season haven’t always been that dramatic — what with the Bruins’ propensity for not playing tight games and just winning going away.

But this week, Ryder came up with two crucial goals to put the Bruins on their way to a pair of important road wins. For his two game-winning goals and a plus-3 rating in three games, Ryder is my Bruin of the Week for the week ending Dec. 28. (more…)

No. 5: By all accounts, Phil Kessel had a solid sophomore season in the NHL leading into the Boston Bruins’ playoff series with Montreal.

As a rookie, he’d fought off testicular cancer and showed flashes of brilliance en route to 11 goals and 18 assists in 70 games. In his second season last winter, he skated in all 82 games and put up 19-18-37 totals. But after the Bruins were dominated in a 4-1 loss to the Habs in Game 1 in Montreal, head coach Claude Julien decided to shake things up — and his target was Kessel.

The then-20-year-old right winger was shipped up to the press box for Games 2, 3 and 4 — of which Boston won just one. What followed after a 1-0 Game 4 loss with the reinsertion of Kessel into the line-up is a story worthy of the top 10 of ’08. (more…)

Well, there’s only one downer in Manny Fernandez’s on-ice life right now, and that’s the lack of another match-up against Atlanta on the Boston Bruins’ remaining schedule.

With his 32-save performance at Philips Arena, Fernandez improved to 7-0-0 all-time against the Thrashers, including 3-0-0 this year. The win also improved Boston to 4-0 this year against the Thrashers.

•No one can accuse of winger Michael Ryder of bad timing. With his tie-breaking score at 13:56 of the third period, Ryder extended his league-leading total in the game-winning goals department. He now has seven — two more than the second-place skaters in that category.

•The Bruins are now 7-0-1 on the second night of back-to-back situations.

•Aaron Ward skated 14:30 of ice time in his return after missing 10 of the last 11 outings.

No. 6: There were plenty of conventional unrestricted free agents set to become available last July 1, but the Boston Bruins’ first order of business was to ink one that hit the open market through a different route.

Forward Blake Wheeler, a three-year standout at the University of Minnesota, had made it clear that he was going to use a clause in the collective bargaining agreement to become a UFA July 1. From the time the spring semester ended until the week leading up to the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, numerous NHL general managers attempted to woo the 6-foot-5, 208-pound former first-round pick (fifth overall in 2004) of the Phoenix Coyotes. Wheeler’s picking of the Bruins made a big enough impact to earn a place among the top 10 Bruins stories of the calendar year 2008. (more…)

It looks like just as the Montreal Canadiens are ready to get winger Andrei Kostitsyn back in the line-up, captain Saku Koivu is going to be out for a stretch.

In today’s Montreal Gazette, Pat Hickey reports that Koivu did not depart with the Habs for the start of their four-game road trip and is unlikely to join the club before its stops in Pittsburgh, Florida, Tampa Bay and New Jersey are completed.

MK: The Habs got plenty of practice playing without Koivu last season and still hung on to the top spot in the East. But now their organizational depth is again going to be tested the way the Bruins’ has so often these last couple of seasons. It should be interesting to see if the Hamilton pipeline is as powerful as the Providence one.

The Boston Bruins will have their hands full Sunday night with Atlanta’s young sniper Bryan Little.

Little will go into the game at Philips Arena fresh off scoring five goals in his last two games, including a hat trick in a loss to Carolina Friday night, as Mike Knobler of the Journal-Constitution described.

In Friday’s paper, the Journal-Constitution had an interesting Q&A with Thrashers GM Don Waddell, who addressed the attendance situation, as well as the personnel situation, with his club. It’s worth a read.

The Boston Bruins could be catching a break tonight when they visit the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh, as the ‘Canes not only played last night in Atlanta but also played an emotionally-charged game — a contest they won, 5-4.

Eric Staal had to score a third-period hat trick to off set Bryan Little’s hat trick for the Thrashers (the Bruins’ opponent Sunday) and lift Carolina to victory, as Chip Alexander of the News & Observer describes.

Reading about the Phoenix Coyotes’ disastrous financial situation in a story this week by David Shoalts of the Globe and Mail got me thinking about players currently wearing a Coyotes sweater that the Bruins might want should Phoenix decide it has to cut payroll.

During a quick glance down the Coyotes’ roster only two names jumped out, and really neither works too well for the Bruins. (more…)

No. 7: There were any number of way Boston Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli could’ve spent his free agent money last summer.

He could’ve cleared some cap space to go for a huge fish for up front like Marian Hossa, he could’ve addressed the defense with a pursuit of Wade Redden or Brian Campbell, or he could’ve held onto the money and waited to see if the exact same team from last year would improve on its own.

What he opted to do was lure winger Michael Ryder to Boston. And that decision, along with the impact Ryder has had on the 2008-09 edition of the Bruins, is important enough to earn its spot on the list of Top 10 Bruins Stories of ’08. (more…)

WORCESTER, Mass. — With the Boston Bruins out of town, I decided to take in the future of the franchise at the DCU Center, as Providence visited the Worcester Sharks.

While the shot count might’ve been a little skewed toward the home team, Providence goaltender Tuukka Rask still had a standout night with 46 saves during regulation and overtime, and four saves in the shootout, in a 3-2 win.

“There was a lot of shots. But our guys blocked most of those shots pretty well. And I saw most of them well,” said Rask, the prized Boston prospect. (more…)

He’s only skated for a little more than 20 minutes combined in the two games since he’s joined the big club, but Providence call-up Martin St. Pierre has done enough to reaffirm the positive beliefs Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien had about him dating back even before training camp.

Julien saw enough of St. Pierre during the center’s junior days and time in the AHL to know he’d come in handy down the road. And for good measure, Bruins assistant coach Geoff Ward coached St. Pierre in the Edmonton organization and also had faith that the 5-foot-9 could boost the Bruins at some point. (more…)

WILMINGTON, Mass. — Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien confirmed today after practice at Ristuccia Arena that center Patrice Bergeron is still at home following the concussion he suffered Dec. 20 vs. Carolina.

“I know for a fact today was better than yesterday,” Julien said about Bergeron, who has been out of the line-up since his collision with Hurricanes defenseman Dennis Seidenberg.

Julien said that there’s still no timetable for a Bergeron return. (more…)